Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

CAROL STREAM, Ill. (Mar. 24, 2019) – Unable to overcome an early five-run deficit, the North Central College baseball team dropped its second straight contest on Sunday, falling 7-4 to Saint Mary's University (Minnesota) at Lee Pfund Stadium.
 
North Central (9-3) actually out-hit Saint Mary's (7-7), 14-8 but struggled pushing runs across, stranding 14 runners on base including multiple runners left on in six of the nine innings.
 
Saint Mary's opened the scoring early with a run in the top of the first and added four more in the top of the fourth to open up a 5-0 lead.
 
After stranding five runners over the first three innings, North Central strung together three hits and took advantage of a Saint Mary's error to plate three runs as Declan Smyth reached on an error and drove home Ryan Scott in the process to plate the first run.
 
The Cardinals plated their second run on a double play before Jeremy Quade beat out an infield single, scoring Luke Gregorio to trim the Saint Mary's lead 5-3.
 
Following a pair of scoreless frames, Saint Mary's added a run in each of the seventh and eighth innings to extend the lead 7-3 while North Central mustered just one run over the final five innings of the contest.
 
Ryan Behling suffered the loss for North Central, giving up fives runs, all earned on six hits over 3 2/3 innings, striking out three and walking three.
 
Quade and Jared Wojcik both finished 3-for-5 from the plate, while Colin Weilbacher was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Matt Sutherland and Scott also each added a pair of hits, while John Carmody hit his team-leading fourth homerun of the season, a solo shot in the eighth.
 
North Central opens College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) play on Wednesday, Mar. 27, hosting Carroll University at 3 p.m. at Zimmerman Stadium.  Links to live in-game coverage are available HERE.